Nation in brief

FDA: Canadian drug screening costly

WASHINGTON - It would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to set up a legal, safe program to import drugs from Canada, the Food and Drug Administration's head pharmacist said Tuesday.

Tom McGinnis insisted the FDA would never rely on Canada's assurances drugs sold in Canada are safe.

McGinnis, the agency's pharmacy affairs director, said the FDA would not piggyback its inspections on the Canadian system because the United States inspects drug manufacturers around the world, while Health Canada relies on inspections done by the drugmaker's host country.

"We want to see everything with our own eyes. We've never accepted inspection results from another country," McGinnis said.

The FDA position sets the tone for a new Health and Human Services study on the safety of Canadian drug imports, which was required by the new Medicare law as a way to appease lawmakers bent on giving Americans greater access to low-cost medicines.

"Anything can be done with enough resources and the authority to do inspections," McGinnis said. "But it's going to be hard to figure out what are the benefits. You're talking about a lot of resources, and when is cost going to outweigh benefit?"

PASO ROBLES, Calif. - More aftershocks rattled the area Tuesday after a magnitude-6.5 earthquake that jolted the central California coast, killing two people, injuring dozens and wrecking a landmark clock tower.

Residents from San Francisco to Los Angeles were shaken by Monday's quake, the first to cause deaths in the state since a magnitude-6.7 temblor hit Northridge in 1994.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger toured the damaged downtown area Tuesday and declared a state of emergency for San Luis Obispo County. The declaration frees up state aid to help local recovery efforts.

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday set the first new emission standards for highway motorcycles in 25 years, and the first standards for small scooters and mopeds.

The EPA said it would reduce pollution from motorcycles, which produce more harmful exhaust per mile than cars or large SUVs, by about 54,000 tons of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides per year. Hydrocarbons react with nitrogen oxides and sunlight to form ground-level ozone, a key component of smog.

Starting in 2006, manufacturers of highway motorcycles, small scooters and mopeds will be required to reduce emissions of those two chemicals by 60 percent by using improved technologies such as secondary air injection, electronic fuel injection systems and catalytic converters. Starting 2008, manufacturers also will be required to better control fuel loss through fuel hoses and tanks.

The new emission controls are estimated to add about $75 to the $10,000 average cost of a motorcycle by 2010.

RYAN PLEADS INNOCENT: Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan pleaded innocent to federal corruption charges Tuesday and said he would spurn any plea bargain on allegations that he took payoffs in return for letting associates profit from state contracts. Ryan pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy, mail fraud, tax fraud, filing false tax returns and making false statements to agents investigating corruption.

OHIO FIRE KILLS 6: Fire engulfed a Canton, Ohio, house early Tuesday, killing two adults and four children hours after some of them had put up a Christmas tree, authorities said. A 21-year-old woman was in critical condition in the burn unit at Akron Children's Hospital.

MASSACHUSETTS CONVICT GETS DEATH SENTENCE: Gary Sampson, 44, a drifter who admitted carjacking and killing two men, was condemned to die Tuesday by a federal jury, the first death sentence handed out in Massachusetts in 30 years.

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